William Shakespeare was born in Stratford-upon-Avon, England, 23 Apri. 1564. His parents were called John and Mary Shakespeare. When he was five he began at a local nursery school. At 18 he was married to Anne Hathaway. She was much older than Shakespeare and lived in a nearby village. Together they had three children. The family life was not very good. In 1586, Shakespeare went to London without his wife, to

develop his writing interests. This was the beginning of a very good writing period. “Romeo and Juliet” and “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” are works from this period. At the age of 22, he was a good and well-known author. His plays so far had been optimistic, but in 1601 he started to write tragedies based on the roman history. Mabye this change came because his son died.

 

When he was in his mid-forties he moved back Stratford-upon-Avon. Here he lived the rest of his life. William Shakespeare died on his birthday 1616. He wrote 37 plays and he showed us every side of a human being. If he is in heaven now, it is no doubt he will be very pleased.

 

 

Shakespeare was one of the Globe Theatre’s owners. The theatre in those days was very different from today. The Globe was built like a circle. The cheapest places were an area in the front of the stage with no seats or roof. The young and the poor ones were standing here. They walked around, drank beer and cheered with everbody they liked. If they dindn’t like the actor they threw nuts at him. If the audience needed to go to the toilet, they just went to the backwall of the theatre and they did it in a bucket. For 2 pence they could get a seat with roof over. Here sat the merchants and the law-clerks. The best seats were called the “Lords Room”. All the important people sat here.

 

It was allways a lot of people at this theatre because London was the biggest city in the world. In 1613 when they were shooting with a canon to announce the entrance of the king, something went wrong. A spark from the canon landed on the roof and soon the whole theatre was on fire. Shakespeare and the actors did not give up. They payed for a new theatre, and this kept running until 1642.

 

His plays:

 

Comedy:

All’s Well That Ends Well
As You Like It
The Comedy of Errors
Cymbeline
Love’s Labours Lost
Measure for Measure
The Merry Wives of Windsor
The Merchant of Venice
A Midsummer Night’s Dream
Much Ado About Nothing
Pericles, Prince of Tyre
Taming of the Shrew
The Tempest
Troilus and Cressida
Twelfth Night
Two Gentelman of Verona
Winer’s tale

 

History:

Henry IV
Henry V
Henry VI
Henry VIII
King John
Richard II
Richard III

 

Tragedy:

Antony and Cleopatra
Coriolanus
Hamlet
Julius Caesar
King Lear
Macbeth
Othello
Romeo and Juliet
Timon of Athens
Titus Andronicus

 

Poetry:

The Sonnets
A Lover’s Complaint
TheRape of Lucrece
Venus and Adonius
Funeral Elegy by W.S.